Saturday, February 25, 2006

I saw the first of these ribbons on a car a few months ago, since then I’ve come across them a couple of other times. It’s a picture we’re all familiar with. You pull up to a light, and start to read the messages displayed on the back of the cars stopped in front of you, and you begin to get a mental picture of its occupants. You can tell a lot about a person by reading the messages proudly exhibited on their bumpers.

This particular sticker was accompanied by the usual cast of characters; the W sticker, a few for some local Republicans, the flag sticker, a support or troops ribbon,, maybe even one about killing the unborn or taking away our guns. Frankly I’ve grown immune to them. My outrage meter, now unable to take the constant barrage of inflammatory rhetoric. But this one stuck out in my mind, not because it was so blatantly racist, but because for a moment I had that sinking feeling that perhaps I was one of a small minority of people who would find it so. This kind of racism seems accepted by many in today’s post 9-11 world, where Lou Dobbbs can nightly lecture millions on the “broken borders” and invasion from the south.

But I wonder if those who display this little gem would do it so proudly if they knew who was behind this ribbon campaign? more below the foldTag: immigrationThe “Bring Them Home and Put Them On The Mexican Border!” ribbon campaign is coordinated by the 15,000 member National Alliance, a white supremacist group out of West Virginia.

( I must warn readers that what follows contains reproductions and links to hate speech and inflammatory racist rhetoric. I reproduce it not to provide any further platform for this kind of bile, but rather to demonstrate how effectively these kinds of groups and their platforms have been embedded into more mainstream ideology. I believe that if those who display the “Put Them on the Mexican Border” stickers were aware of just what kind of people they are actually supporting, they would be repulsed. )

The brave men and women who serve in our armed forces are the victims of a deadly conflict of interest. Millions of Third Worlders are invading the US through Mexico, while the blood of our sons and daughters is spent protecting the borders of a hostile country.-Snip-

Why invade a sovereign country that never attacked us? The answer: The desire to secure Israel by powerful Jewish lobbyists and advisors who wormed their way into the Bush administration.-Snip-

The Arabs wage war through desperate, primitive terrorism and the Jews wage war through high-tech terror and corruption of the US government. We want no part of their war. Millions of Third Worlders invade the US, through Mexico. But our government is being run by people who are more concerned about Israel’s borders than our own.

Our world is hierarchical. Each of us is a member of the Aryan (or European) race, which, like the other races, developed its special characteristics over many thousands of years during which natural selection not only adapted it to its environment but also advanced it along its evolutionary path. Those races which evolved in the more demanding environment of the North, where surviving a winter required planning and self-discipline, advanced more rapidly in the development of the higher mental faculties -- including the abilities to conceptualize, to solve problems, to plan for the future, and to postpone gratification -- than those which remained in the relatively unvarying climate of the tropics. Consequently, the races vary today in their capabilities to build and to sustain a civilized society and, more generally, in their abilities to lend a conscious hand to Nature in the task of evolution.

There’s no ambiguity in the message, no mention of usual rationale for closing up the borders. They don’t allude to terrorist or security threats, job loss by native workers or economic pressures put on the system by immigrants, they don’t even revert to the old standby about the illegality of entering the country with proper paperwork. They go right to the core of their beliefs: immigrants coming from Mexico and Central America are bad because they’re brown, plain and simple. Do you think the bumper-sticker guy knows that his funny little racist joke sticker actually comes from people who believe that Jews secretly control our foreign policy and Aryans are evolutionarily predisposed to run civilization? I would hope not.

The immigration issue is one that’s highly divisive. Many people of good conscience see the issue differently, but to have groups like National Alliance spearheading the issue only muddies the waters. They play upon the fears and concerns of the American people in order to move forward their warped agenda.

The movement to close the borders has long had roots in the racist underbelly of American culture. Long before the average American was concerned about “Broken Borders”, “Clash of Civilizations” or “Death of the West”, white supremacists were targeting Hispanics and using the failures of US immigration policy to whip up racial animosities. Many of the border vigilante groups that have gained notoriety post 9-11 actually spun off out of the white supremacist movement in the early 1990’s. The Southern Poverty Law Center, the preeminent watchdog organization for hate groups has profiled over twenty top anti-immigrant leaders and spokesmen with ties to racist and white supremacist groups. Many of these leaders, now sanitized for public consumption, show up on TV news and opinion shows as pundits and experts on immigration reform.

The American people must be very careful as we engage in this debate about immigration reform. We must not let those with hidden agendas and evil motivations set the tone of discourse. The next time you see that pundit or advocate on TV spouting out “statistics” and “facts” be very careful. Read the little scroll under his or her name, see what group they really represent. They might not be who you think they are. You might want to think twice before sticking that ribbon on your car. It might say far more than you think..

4 comments:

White supremacist groups have become savvy in their use of the internet and other forms of media to spread their inflammatory racist rhetoric. They have achieved a certain measure of success in reaching out to the average American who can easily be swayed with veiled calls to rise up and perform their patriotic duty with alarming images and reports of how illegal immigrants are invading our country. These groups can achieve a measure of success within groups that stops short of digging deeper and don't make any attempt to understand the complex issues that comprise illegal immigration.

I commend you for calling attention to the true racist agenda of the National Allicance and thwart their attempts to hijack a critical issue that necessitates meaninful dialogue. Our country remains deeply divided on the issue of illegal immigration and American citizens would serve themselves well to spend a little time trying to understand the complex set of issues that have resulted in 10 million plus illegal immigrants who now live, work, have families, homes and businesses in this country. It is only by understanding the complex set of issues that we can begin to frame a reasonable and workable solution to a problem that has been in the making for the past 20 years.

Snap Shots

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